Ashton in power struggle over Middle East policy

Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, has sought and failed to remove the EU’s special envoy to the Middle East peace process, in a battle with member states over policymaking for the region.

The member states fought back, and European Voice has been told of a confrontation between Ashton and their ambassadors to the EU’s political and security committee (PSC).

The struggle comes as Ashton seeks to shift the EU’s position on the Middle East peace process, apparently to align it more with that of the US.

Multiple accounts by diplomats and officials show that Ashton tried to remove Andreas Reinicke, a career diplomat from Germany who has held the post since February 2012.

In a series of initial exchanges between her staff and the member states’ ambassadors, Ashton said that she wanted to extend Reinicke’s mandate by just six months, as a prelude to removing him and eliminating the position. Reinicke’s mandate runs until 30 June.

The foreign policy chief made a rare personal visit to a meeting of PSC ambassadors on 7 June to press her argument, but her proposal was unanimously rejected. A source said that the ambassadors had taken the unusual step of meeting beforehand to co-ordinate their positions, without the chairman of the political and security committee (PSC), who is a member of her staff.

Ashton made clear that personal differences contributed to her desire to remove Reinicke, but she also said that she had concluded that she herself should step into the Middle East peace process. “We reminded her that she could do that at any time,” a diplomat said.

Ambassadors insisted that the position of a Middle East special envoy, which was created in 1996, should be maintained. Member states cover the costs of special envoys, and envoys answer to both the EU’s foreign policy chief and the member states.

The German government refused to comment on Ashton’s bid to remove Reinicke. A spokesperson for Ashton said: “The review is to make sure that we have the most adequate, effective and efficient set-up to deal with the respective issues.”

Although Ashton approved his appointment back in 2012, Reinicke has found himself sidelined. She is said to pay far greater heed to Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister who is now an envoy of the Middle East quartet – the United Nations, the United States, the EU and Russia.

The breakdown of relations between Ashton, Reinicke and the EU’s member states comes at a moment when several of the EU’s member states are chafing at how they have gone along with an American request to allow the new US secretary of state, John Kerry, space to pursue a diplomatic initiative with the Israelis and Palestinians.

These member states are alarmed that Syria’s civil war, Iran’s nuclear programme and Egypt’s troubles have diverted international attention from the continued building of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. Such settlements threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.

Europe is not “a cheerleader” to be brought on and off court, one diplomat said, noting that last year the EU was “the only international actor keeping alight the sacred flame of the two-state solution”, with the US “out of the picture for a year”.

A desire to accommodate the request from the US, the strongest international actor in the region, ensured that the early phases of preparations for a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers on Monday (24 June) were dominated by a debate about whether or not member states should issue any conclusions at all on the Middle East peace process.

Ashton would have preferred no conclusions. A decision has been taken to issue conclusions in some form, but Ashton’s team is trying to ensure that they are as non-committal as possible.

Last May, the EU’s foreign ministers issued a strong statement warning that “developments on the ground” – the construction of settlements on occupied territory – “threaten to make a two-state solution impossible”.